Improvement in impregnating fibrous materials for packing



Etched tatea @atent cttlflire.

ELIZA n. MURFEY, on NEW YORK, N. 5;.

Letters Patent No. 108,284, dated October 11, 1870.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

I, ELIZA D. MURFEY, of N cw York, county of New York, State of New York, have invented an Improve-- ment in Iinpreguating Fibrous Materials with Powdered Substances, of which the following is aspecification.

Nature and Object of the Invention.

hereafter to need preliminary explanation, whereby hemp, or other rope or sliver, maybe thoroughly inipregnatcd with insoluble materials in a comminuted state.

In the manufacture of packings, composed of hemp, or other rope or sliver, combined or impregnated with pulverized or comminuted insoluble materials, such as soapstone, plumbago, &c., it has been found difficult to impregnate the rope, with the powdered material, the latter generally coating only the surface of the rope, so that after this surface wears away, al though the greater body of the packing remains, it is comparatively useless.

I have found that a rope or sliver may be thoroughly impregnated with any insoluble comminuted material by the use of melted paraffiue, or its equivalent, as a vehicle, in the following manner? The insoluble material, such, for instance, as plumbago, hair, soapstone, &c., after being properly coui minuted, is mixed with melted .parafline, tallow, or other substance, which can be dissolved aud'will hold the comminuted material in suspension, the mixture being constantly agitated in a heated vessel to pre serve it in a fluid state, at a uniform consistency. The loosely-twisted rope or sliver is passed slowly through the mixture, with which it becomes thoroughly saturated, and is then conducted between pressure-rollers or clamps, so arranged that the ex-.

cess ofmaterial pressed from the sliver will return to the vessel. l

From the rollers or clamps the' sliver is conducted,

through a heated tube-0r vessel, to rollers or devices by which it is twisted into a comparatively tight rope,

the heat of the tube maintaining the parafiine, or other vehicle, in such a fluid state that .it will vflow from the rope as the latter is twisted, leaving among the fibers or strands the insoluble material. My invention relates to a process too fully described By the process described the rope'is so thoroughly impregnated with the insoluble materials that the packing will be as eflicient when half worn away aswhen first applied, while all the advantages of a dry packing are obtained, only suflicient of the paraffine, or other vehicle, remaining in the packing to cause the powder to adhere to the fibers.

Where a packing is required for closing joints, or for other purposes for which a hard compact rope wouldbe unsuitable, the sliver, instead of being twisted, is merely pressed between clamps or rollers, to remove the surplus material. a

Claims.

1. The process of impregnating hemp, or other rope or sliver, with insoluble materials, by passmg a sliver through melted para'fiine, or equivalent mate1ial,hold- V witnesses.

-- E. D. MURFEY.

Witnesses:

flnomas Pnunns, V HnsRYMoMAuus; 

